The present invention relates, generally, to user interfaces and methods associated therewith and, more specifically, to user interfaces and methods involving semantically coupling the actions of handheld devices into application inputs.
User interfaces are ubiquitous in today's society. Computers, cell phones, fax machines and televisions, to name a few products, all employ user interfaces. User interfaces are intended to provide a mechanism for users to easily access and manipulate the, sometimes complex, functionality of the devices that they support. An example of a user interface is found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/768,432, filed on Jan. 30, 2004, entitled “A Control Framework with a Zoomable Graphical User Interface for Organizing, Selecting and Launching Media Items”, the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference. Typically, such user interfaces employ remote, handheld devices to provide inputs to their respective applications.
Most interface designs for gaming applications include special purpose remote input devices with limited range of motion sensitivity. The result is that morphing devices for different purposes within one gaming application, or across different games, is difficult and restrictive. So-called virtual reality systems provide more flexibility, e.g. by requiring a user to “suit up”, but are physically burdensome and expensive. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide new user interfaces and handheld devices which overcome the drawbacks associated with existing gaming (and other) applications.